Science in the Classroom is a collection of annotated research papers and accompanying teaching materials designed to help students understand the structure and workings of professional scientific research.

Assessing Our Understanding of Crude Oil Teacher Sheet

Introduction

This is the answer key for the student sheet Assessing our Understanding of Crude Oil.

1. Where does crude oil come from?

a) Dead dinosaursb) Ancient plankton and sea lifec) It’s always been part of the earthd) People make ite) I don’t know

2. Crude oil is the same thing as…

a) Natural gasb) Fossilsc) Petroleumd)Coale) Gasolinef) I don’t know

3. Underground, crude oil looks like...

a) A large cave filled with oilb) A river of black oil flowing through a tunnelc) A solid black layer of carbond) Liquid metal moving slowlye) Drops of oil mixed with sand or filling small cracksf) I don’t know

4. Today, crude oil can be found underground in deserts, forests, and even in the ocean. What do we know about these places in ancient times?

a) Petroleum can form in any environmentb) The places where petroleum is found were once desertsc) The places where petroleum is found were once seasd) These areas have large caves which could store petroleume) I don’t know

5. Chemically, crude oil is composed of…

a) Ancient plankton and sea lifeb) Vast quantities of a single type of hydrocarbonc) Fossils of ancient organisms, like dinosaursd) A collection of different molecules, including metals and hydrocarbonse) I don’t know

6. Why is crude oil superheated in the refinery process?

a) Heating allows it to become liquid and more easily alteredb) The crude oil must be changed into a gas state in order to refine itc) The heating process burns off contaminating residue in the crude oild) The hydrocarbons in the crude oil can be separated based on their boiling pointe) I don’t know

a) Rise high in the distillation columnb) Will stay low in the distillation columnc) Will not become a gasd) I don’t know

9. A petroleum fraction is…

a) A small amount of the original crude oilb) What we pump into our cars at the gas stationc) A collection of hydrocarbons of similar length found in the crude oild) A collection of one type of hydrocarbon originally found in the crude oile) I don’t know

10. How long does crude oil take to form?

a) It has always been part of the earthb) Millions of yearsc) Thousands of yearsd) Hundreds of yearse) Less than 100 yearsf) People can make it from other productsg) I don’t know